DOVER BEATS THE BAND

The last of the Chief Inspector Dover novels, published posthumously, finds the curmudgeon mucking about in the Muncaster Municipal dump, where the charred remains of a Mr. Knapper lie. By following the trail of the blue bead in Knapper's tummy (the form of payment at the Rankin Holiday Ranch at Bowerville-by-the-sea), the slothful, dyspeptic Dover and his long-suffering assistant MacGregor uncover a right-wing terrorist group, masquerading as a harmless stamp club, that deemed Knapper a traitor and killed him. Before Dover belches his way to a wildly improbable conclusion, an infiltrator from Special Branch almost blows the Inspector's cover; the Official Secrets Act impedes the investigation; and Dover, as usual, antagonizes the innocent and guilty alike. Not nearly as funny or inventive as Dover and the Claret Tappers, but an appropriately testy memorial to ``the most unwanted man'' at Scotland Yard.